The Movie Topic (films recently watched, general discussion, etc)

[bright lights, big city]

everybody fucking stop what you're doing and go see District 9. great great great great movie.

[defskull]

I'll probably see it this weekend.  Next weekend is Inglourious Basterds and Ponyo.  There are finally some movies that look good coming to theatres.

[bright lights, big city]

yeah dude, you know Ponyo's gotta be good. has Miyazaki ever made just an average movie?

[shine down unshy]

Yeah I've heard good things about District 9.  I definitely wanna go check that shit out.


I heard that this was the movie Peter Jackson was working on, and it was going to be called Halo but ended up getting scrapped. 

[wither-I]

saw district 9 last night and it was terrific. they accomplished so many moods in the movie, brilliantly done.. not what i expected, but more!

[ben]

Seeing District 9 tomorrow.

Saw I Love You Man.  I thought it was terrible.

[defskull]

District 9 wasn't as great as I had hoped.  It was a frustrating experience because I wanted to like it more than I did.  The direction was great and the general idea was great as well, but perhaps where the story went is where I became dissatisfied. 

SPOILERS HERE ON OUT!!!!

The first half of the movie being essentially all documentary style was a great way to introduce the back story to the audience.  When the main human character (forgot his name) got sprayed with the black alien fuel, it was obvious he was going to become an alien.  That wasn't the problem.  I enjoyed how MNU got a hold of him to experiment on and essentially kill him to harvest his body for further research.  I really thought that the main character was going to die at the point, and afterward the story would be a conflict between the humans with alien technology and the aliens revolting against the humans. What happened instead was we had a character that you were supposed to hate the first half and then all of a sudden start feeling for him because humans don't care about his life anymore?  Up until almost the very end he was being a selfish prick, knocking out Chris (the alien, was that his name?) so that he could go up to the mothership to transform back to human.  I didn't understand why I should have been rooting for him when he was still being selfish.  Only in the last 10 minutes or so did he start acting selfless, but even then it was after realizing that waiting three years was now his only option to become human again. 

There were things I did enjoy.  The disgusting initial transformations the main character start going through such as pulling off his fingernails.  The alien technology blowing people up was awesome as well.  The CGI was good regardless of the budget, and when you realize it was only made for $30 million dollars it's even more spectacular.  The directing was ridiculously good.  This world felt extremely real and not fabricated as well.  It's too bad the script wasn't better to support the directing. 

Overall decent movie, but not as great as some people seem to be making it out to be.     

[theis]

Saw I Love You Man.  I thought it was terrible.

Whaaaaat, dude? Why?

[shine down unshy]

He's probably like Peter Klaven, never had a best friend..a touch of feminimity.  Just messin', Ben 

[bright lights, big city]

He's probably like Peter Klaven, never had a best friend..a touch of feminimity.  Just messin', Ben 

hey, it cracked me up, lol

[bright lights, big city]

District 9 wasn't as great as I had hoped.  It was a frustrating experience because I wanted to like it more than I did.  The direction was great and the general idea was great as well, but perhaps where the story went is where I became dissatisfied. 

SPOILERS HERE ON OUT!!!!

The first half of the movie being essentially all documentary style was a great way to introduce the back story to the audience.  When the main human character (forgot his name) got sprayed with the black alien fuel, it was obvious he was going to become an alien.  That wasn't the problem.  I enjoyed how MNU got a hold of him to experiment on and essentially kill him to harvest his body for further research.  I really thought that the main character was going to die at the point, and afterward the story would be a conflict between the humans with alien technology and the aliens revolting against the humans. What happened instead was we had a character that you were supposed to hate the first half and then all of a sudden start feeling for him because humans don't care about his life anymore?  Up until almost the very end he was being a selfish prick, knocking out Chris (the alien, was that his name?) so that he could go up to the mothership to transform back to human.  I didn't understand why I should have been rooting for him when he was still being selfish.  Only in the last 10 minutes or so did he start acting selfless, but even then it was after realizing that waiting three years was now his only option to become human again. 

There were things I did enjoy.  The disgusting initial transformations the main character start going through such as pulling off his fingernails.  The alien technology blowing people up was awesome as well.  The CGI was good regardless of the budget, and when you realize it was only made for $30 million dollars it's even more spectacular.  The directing was ridiculously good.  This world felt extremely real and not fabricated as well.  It's too bad the script wasn't better to support the directing. 

Overall decent movie, but not as great as some people seem to be making it out to be.     

***POSSIBLE SPOILER ***

You are correct about the main character (Wilkus). I was able to put the minor deficiencies down BECAUSE of the directing, the acting, and effects, and just the overall story of the movie. I think that we really were supposed to feel bad for Wilkus (probably why they put the scenes in with his wife), and technically he was the main character. But I did see him as an asshole, like you did, and rooted for Chris the alien and son (which was fucking cute lol). I never really thought about Wilkus surviving or dying or caring about him, it was always the 2 main aliens.
And if they do announce a sequel for this, I am all for it.

[ben]

Saw I Love You Man.  I thought it was terrible.

Whaaaaat, dude? Why?

every scene seemed like it lasted 30 hours and it just wasn't my kind of humor I guess. 

also, I don't know what the conflict was at the end of the film. 

[ben]

last four movies

[defskull]

What did you think of Sukiyaki Western Django? 

[theis]

Come on, ben. Comment on the flicks you watch

District 9.

Absolutely fantastic. Surprisingly touching and sad.

I loved the Aliens nod near the end. Where Wikus crawls into the armor suit/robot thingie. Oh, and the Cronenberg Fly nods were awesome too.

9/10.

[bright lights, big city]

yeah the fingernails were so cool

[defskull]

They were cool in a grimacing way.  But yeah The Fly is definitely the first thing I thought of when I saw that.

[Jacob]

I just watched Pan's Labyrinth for the first time. I can't believe I waited so long! it was amazing, almost had be in tears at the end. and it gave me more shivers than any horror movie has done over the last 15 years.

[bright lights, big city]

I just watched Pan's Labyrinth for the first time. I can't believe I waited so long! it was amazing, almost had be in tears at the end. and it gave me more shivers than any horror movie has done over the last 15 years.

thats exactly how I felt when I saw it. great, great movie.

[defskull]

Yeah good movie. My girlfriend loves it.  You should really check out The Devil's Backbone.  Pan's Labyrinth is considered the spiritual sequel to it.  They have a lot of similarities while still being significantly different.  A big recommend.